The Idea:I think I’ve been heavily into Hana Yori Dango for well over a year, now. Since then, I’ve been itching to make a video to this shoujo angst-fest series. I had several songs that I thought about using. One day, I randomly had the radio on (a pretty rare occurrence these days) and heard “The Reason,” by Hoobastank. Despite knowing damn well how over-played the song is, and how over-used it’s been in AMVs during 2004, I couldn’t help but immediately associate the song with Hana Yori Dango’s male protagonist, Tsukasa Domyoji. One CD purchase and one session of DVD-ripping later, I was well on my way to editing this video.

The Title:The title of this video is actually taken from a New Found Glory song, “You’ve Got a Friend in Pennsylvania.” I didn’t want to simply name the video “The Reason,” since it’s not very descriptive, and I’m sure there’s tons of AMVs out there that share this name.

I chose this title because it fits Tsukasa’s character nicely. He’s in love with someone, but up to this current point in time, he’s regretted the horrible things he’s done in his life.

The Tech:While the majority of this video is defined by slow-paced editing, it does utilize effects just a little bit. The intro was created in AfterEffects, as were both of the “reflection” scenes with Tsukasa remembering his past. The shot of Tsukushi’s face appearing in the moon and zooming in was also made in AfterEffects. The rest of the video just uses standard cross-dissolves from Premiere. No need to go over the top with a video like this.

The HARDEST bit of tech in this video that isn’t even flashy or noticeable was the lip-flap cover-up I had to do from 2:42-2:44. In the original footage, Tsukushi’s mouth is flapping away as Tsukasa puts his finger on her lips. That was just too distracting, so I used masks to cover up her talking. In the end, I think I’m most proud of this tech piece.

The Story:Long story short, this video’s all about a young bad boy in love who finds redemption through his newfound emotions. If this description is good enough for you, by all means, feel free to download it via the link at the bottom of the page. :D However, if you’d like to know more about this thing…

The intro of the video (in standard Meri fashion) shows shots of Tsukasa and his love interest, the heroine of the series, Tsukushi Makino, looking intently at each other. With this beginning, I hope to shed a tiny light on their awkward relationship. This segment ends with Tsukasa forcing Tsukushi up against a wall. She’s crying, and he’s already regretting what he’s done.

After this, we see Tsukasa all alone, reflecting on “the many things he wishes he didn’t do”. Against his reflection in the window, we see some of these acts of violence he’s committed against random people and friends alike.

Then, he’s sitting alone, thinking more about what a horrible person he’s been. This time, he reflects on how he’s hurt Tsukushi (both physically AND mentally) specifically in the past (attempted rape, bitch-slapping, the whole nine yards).

Tsukasa is then seen walking down the street alone at night, perhaps ready to leave town and give up on everything, but then he recalls the time he saved Tsukushi from being massively beat up by the student body at school. By saving her, he’s hoping to atone for his sins. This is also his way of slowly showing her that he’s fallen in love with Tsukushi.

Despite this act of goodness, Tsukasa still feels lousy about himself and what he’s done the woman he now loves. While he sits on his bed in his dark room, we see Tsukushi outside of his mansion, walking away and crying. I wonder what he did to her to make her so upset? That’s up to you to decide.

When we get to the “I wish that I could take it all away” segment, we see the pair now interacting a little more. But this time, Tsukasa boldly makes his first move, as he shockingly holds Tsukushi tightly to him.

The next block of the video is all about Tsukasa showing Tsukushi that she’s his “reason” (dur hur hur, I said it!) for changing into a better man.

And then… it’s the money shot sequence, the video’s climax! I’m not gonna say what it is, but let it be known that this next part starting around 2:35 was easily my favorite part in this video to edit. In fact, I think this was the first section on the timeline that I edited.

And yes, the shots from 2:31 to 2:35… it’s the same guy. I assumed that most people aren’t familiar with this series, and therefore they wouldn’t know that “straight-haired guy” is the same person as our leading man. It’s just that his hair becomes straight when it’s wet. Tsukasa has straight hair in the all-important climax, so I wanted to introduce that new hairstyle of his right before this section. Sorry, it’s the best I could do. I do this only because I remember seeing my first Hana Yori Dango video at Shoujocon many years ago, and I didn’t realize that curly-hair and straight-hair Tsukasa were one and the same (at the time, I didn’t know anything about the series). I didn’t want people to be as confused as I was back then.

From here on out, from the turning point onwards, we see Tsukasa openly showing his affection towards Tsukushi. He’s now a changed man! Huzzah! Best of all, she doesn’t reject him!

Conclusion:It’s a damn shame that there aren’t that many Hana Yori Dango videos out there. I adore this series. It has great drama, great characters, and a unique art style not seen in most modern shows. It has a very over-the-top operatic feel to it. And I totally have been eating it up :D. That said, it was an absolute blast making this video, especially since Tsukasa is easily my favorite character from HYD. Even if you don’t know this series, I hope you can still understand what the video is all about (I hope it’s fairly straight-forward). Enjoy!

PS: Since I love this show so much (and I didn’t want to delete all the footage from my hard-drive just yet), I am currently working on another HYD video that I hope to finish this February or March.